[Closed angle glaucoma induced by phospholine iodide and epinephrine in a case of open angle glaucoma]

A patient suffering from open angle glaucoma was treated with topical phospholine iodide and epinephrine. Before treatment the anterior chamber was deep and the angle wide open in both eyes. Two weeks after beginning treatment there was an acute elevation of pressure to 52 mm hg in the right eye accompanied by myopia, shallowing of the anterior chamber and closure of the angle. These findings were dramatically reversed by the instillation of one drop of tropicamide and one drop of cyclopentolate. Simultaneous contraction of the dilator and sphincter muscles of the iris in this case probably caused pupillary block and closure of the anterior chamber angle, in spite of the initially wide open angle. Phospholine iodide may also have caused a spasm of the ciliary muscle and a forward movement of the lens, in a manner similar to that thought to occur in malignant glaucoma. Strong miotics together with epinephrine should be used cautiously in the treatment of glaucoma even when the initial examination shows a wide open angle.